Kill Bill Vol. 2 (USA, 2004) [US Cut] [BD] - 5/5
I first saw Vol. 1 back in 2003 when it was in theatres. I couldn't wait for it to hit the local screens, so I took a trip with two friends to a bigger city, and for all of us being slightly underage we were growing beards for two weeks just to make sure we'd look older and get in. I dunno if it worked, but in we got. After the film arrived my hometown three weeks later I saw it four more times. Then, in spring 2004 I got the Japanese DVD on mail the same day when we are about the head to Rome for a school trip, so I called these guys that my DVD just arrived but I've got a bus to catch to the airport at 10 pm, but if we get together around 6 pm we'll have time to watch it! Of course we did!
Now, 11 years and 500 samurai, spaghetti western, kung fu and blaxploitation flicks later I was absolutely thrilled to revisit the film(s) with my girlfriend, who barely knows anything about cinema. So I went to rent both volumes and tell her that we're gonna go to love hotel, there's a 50 inch TV there, and we're gonna have ourselves a Kill Bill double feature, both volumes back to back.
And yeah, it's still fucking blast! Sonny Chiba giving Uma a Hattori Hanzo steel! David Carradine telling Uma the story about Pai Mei and the destruction of Shaolin Temple! Gordon Liu in his white beard speaking Cantonese! Bill's final steps! This is what cinema is all about! I think Vol. 2 might be even a tiny bit better than Vol. 1 but it's difficult to decide. The only regret is that Uma could really have worked on her Japanese a bit more, but then again, butchering the language somehow fits the exploitation context. Lucy Liu did a little bit better.
Oh yeah, and the next morning I really enjoyed bursting into film geek / Tarantino mode like a little boy explain everything about how Gordon Liu fought Pai Mei twice before in his career and now he's playing the character himself (but only cause Lo Lieh is dead) and how in Pulp Fiction (which we saw during Christmas) Sam L. Jackson says he's gonna walk the earth like Caine in Kung Fu (my answer to the question "who is David Carradine"), and explaining from which film every piece of music is from and where the flute and eye patch and all come from.
...I think she still loves me, though
